Interview: Laura Whitmore swaps glamour for gore

Steve Mills

It will be a slight departure for television presenter Laura Whitmore when she appears in Not Dead Enough coming to Northampton at the beginning of next month.

The show is performed from Tuesday May 2 to Saturday May 6.

She swaps a studio for the stage when she appears in the stage adaptation of the Peter James novel.Most actors have to do some background research when they take on a part.

Laura said: “I don’t think there’s much difference between the two. When you are on a show presenting it, there can be times when you are tired and you have to find the energy to be a different version of yourself rather than being the tired one.

“I have been an actor when I was in my early 20s and then I did years of presenting with MTV, ITV and Eurovision. I like to learn by doing and to get the chance to work alongside the likes of Ant and Dec – who are the best in the business for doing live television – and to work alongside them was incredible.

“I think that was part of the reason why I wanted to do this because what better experience to get back into acting than to do live theatre as it is such a challenge.”

Laura plays Cleo Morley in the show which starts on the night that Brian Bishop murdered his wife.

But he claims he was 60 miles away, asleep in bed.

And she took real life inspiration in her interpretation of the character.

She said: “I studied journalism and did was crime reporting. There was a pathologist by the name of Marie Cassidy, and I got always very excited whenever I saw her because she was always quite glamourous. So it is nice to be able to use that little bit of my past in preparing for this part.

“But it is a very gory part, it’s a million miles away from the styles of red carpet which I have been used to.”

And Laura is delighted to appear in the show.

She said: “I had met Peter about two years ago to talk about one of the other books adapted as a play, Dead Simple, and I was well aware of his work.

“I’m in airports a lot and whenever I see a bookshop I always see one of Peter’s books in the top 10 and end up picking them up.

“It is quite overwhelming being in the rehearsal process and working with all these wonderful people but it is such a great team.”